Wednesday, May 13, 2015

LIFEHOUSE's Jason Wade: An EXCLUSIVE interview!

Meet Me
On The Wastelands:

An
EXCLUSIVE interview with LIFEHOUSE’s Jason Wade

By
Stephen SPAZ Schnee

When a successful band goes on
hiatus, they seldom return. If they do decide to give it another go, it tends
to be a long while before they get back together, intact and ready to rock. So,
when the bandLifehouseannounced,
in July of 2013, that they had left the comfort of a major label –Geffen
Records–
and were on temporary hiatus, many felt the band might have split for good.
Looking back, you couldn’t really blame them – with six studio albums (five of
them charting in the Billboard Top 20) and more than a dozen charting singles,
the band had certainly achieved more success than they could have ever imagined
since the release of their debut albumNo Name
Face,in 2000. Perhaps the
band’s core members – singer/songwriterJason Wade,
bassist/vocalistBryce Soderbergand
drummerRick
Woolstenhulme– felt it was time to move on.
However, Lifehouse has decided to buck the ‘hiatus’ trend and now, less than
two years after their announcement, the band is back and firing on all
cylinders withOut
Of The Wasteland, their seventh studio album and their most inspired
since their debut a decade and a half ago. (For the record, lead guitaristBen
Carey, who had toured with the band since 2004 and became a full-fledged
member in 2009, has officially parted ways with Lifehouse.)

The break in the band’s
never-ending schedule of recording and touring has given the members a chance
to breathe and focus on their love of songwriting and creating again. Tracks
like “Hurricane,” “One For The Pain,” “Flight” and “Stardust” are filled with
top notch hooks that will sound great on Modern Rock and Top 40 radio. The
songs onOut
Of The Wastelandare filled with
the same wide-eyed wonder that fueled their early recordings, but the band’s
maturity has added extra depth to their musical approach. This is most apparent
on the cinematic sweep of album closer “Hourglass,” a song penned by Pop
meisterJude
Cole, film composerJames Newton
Howardand
Jason Wade.

Stephen SPAZ Schneewas
able to chat with Jason Wade about the band’s new album and more…

STEPHEN SPAZ SCHNEE:Out
of the Wasteland is just about ready to be released. How are you
feeling about it and the reaction so far?

JASON WADE: We’re
very excited about it! Very optimistic and feel like we’re returning to
our roots, which is an amazing feeling. A lot of the songs off of the record
are reminiscent of our first record, No Name Face... so
it’s nice to return to a sound and a songwriting style that’s not only familiar
to us, but familiar to our fans as well.

SPAZ: Were these
songs specifically written for this album? Or were they songs you had written
over the last couple of years that you felt were right for this project?

JASON: Well, I
feel like the backbone of the record are songs like “Hurricane” and “Flight,”
but there were some stragglers. A song called “Wish” that we just
released as an exclusive for the iTunes preorder was written, I want to say, in
2002-2003 and the song never really felt like it had a home. The mindset was
writing 65 to 70 songs in a two year span and collectively we picked the 12
strongest, and a couple of them were from around 2007, but most everything came
out of that two year hiatus we had. We needed a break. So burned
out… touring for over a decade non-stop, so just to come home and have a
fresh perspective…I went into the studio with such a healthy mindset of wanting
to get back to an inspired place and really recharge the batteries. I think
that being on a major label for over a decade, you can get lost a little on the
creative end. I feel like you’re always sensing that you’re going to turn in a
record and they’re going to tell you that you don’t have a single. So, to be on
our own right now and make everything about making the best album that we can
make was, I think, a n extremely healthy place for us to be.

SPAZ: Did leaving
a major label and taking the independent route make the recording process a lot
more rewarding than maybe the last couple records?

JASON: It did, and
at the same time it made it more challenging too. To take two years on an album
was unusal for the band. We, historically, would go in and make a record in
about a four or five month period. To have no pressure when it comes to writing
singles or making hits, or all of that white noise that you try not to think
about when you’re in the studio, we held ourselves to a high standard. A couple
of times, we thought that we were finished with the record, and we started over
completely. So, we didn’t phone it in. We were trying really hard to make
something that we could stand behind and be proud of after being together for
15, 16 years.

SPAZ: Has your
songwriting process changed at all over the years?

JASON: It has,
absolutely. I started as just anacoustic guitar player/writer. I’d write a song
on acoustic guitar and then play it for the band. We would arrange it and
produce ourselves more into a live, Rock mentality in the studio – just guitar,
bass, drums recorded live a couple times and then some overdubs – which
is the classic way of doing things. On this album in particular it felt like
every time I picked up an acoustic guitar or sat down at the piano, I would
just go to the same chord changes over and over again. The same melodies were
coming out, and so I needed to jolt my creativity. This time I’d bring in an
engineer and just use the studio as a canvas, throwing different sounds down on
tape – different rhythms, keyboard sounds...anything that would allow a
different vantage point. So I would make the tracks sound a little bit
different and then bring the band in, then we'd record on top of the
demos. But anything I could do to come up with something that was just a little
different, because let’s face it, you’re never going to reinvent the
wheel, but you can change your method a little bit so you don’t feel like
you’re doing the same thing over and over.

SPAZ: There are
some particularly great tracks on the album including “One For The Pain” and
“Stardust,” which is just immediately accessible...

JASON: Yeah,
that’s Bryce’s song and his vocal on it. It’s one of my favorite tracks on the
record. He wrote a great song.

SPAZ: You’ve
collaborated with other vocalists and writers in the past. What about on this
record?

JASON: The last
record, we had Natasha Bedingfield featured on a track and we
had Peter Frampton featured on a song. There’s no real
features on this particular album, but there was a song, “Hourglass,”
co-written by myself, Jude Cole, and James Newton Howard,
who is one of my favorite composers. I’m a huge fan of film music in general
and of James in particular, and this song – James and Jude wrote over 20 years
ago and it just laid dormant with this unfinished demo. Jude showed me the demo
and I got inspired and just really wanted to collaborate with James Newton
Howard and I helped them finish. We spent two days arranging the strings and
watching James work his magic. So that was a highlight for me personally – to
get to work with one of my film heroes.

SPAZ: You’ve
achieved a great amount of success in the past, but when you went into the
studio, was there pressure to live up to that? Or were you able to separate
yourself from that and just make a record that you’re proud of?

JASON: I think
there was. There was a time – I want to say like 5 or 6 years ago – where it
was really hard not to pay attention to those things. In the very beginning, I
had no idea what I was doing. Everything was written almost out of necessity –
I just needed to write those songs at that time in my life. On this record, I
wanted to get back to that. I wanted to find that 17-year-old kid that was in
awe of the creative process and being in a studio, crafting or channeling songs
from another place. That’s where my head was at this time. It was not, “Let’s
write three or four singles.” The business stuff was all white noise – as soon
as I closed the door in the studio, that was all outside stuff and everything
else was just a pure creative cocoon.

SPAZ: As a
songwriter, are you able to go into the studio and allow the other guys to
offer some kind of creative input when recording?

JASON: Oh,
absolutely. Rick and Bryce do their thing and they always have great ideas, and
it feels like Lifehouse as soon as their instruments are on the track.
It’s an open forum for everybody to have their opinions and their creative
outlet.

SPAZ: As the
songwriter, was there a particular song – or songs – that you wrote that really
solidified the direction that the album was going to take?

JASON: Probably
the two songs, “Hurricane” and “Flight.” Those were the ones that really got me
thinking that it was time to get the band back together, and these two songs
were the catalyst for letting all the other songs come in. Especially “Flight.”
As soon as “Flight” was mixed and finished, it just felt like one that only
comes around every two or three years where you just happen to be in the room
while the song is taking shape in front of you. Those are the moments, as a
songwriter that you live for and that keeps you coming back for more, trying to
figure out what that magic is.

SPAZ: What is next
for Jason Wade and Lifehouse?

JASON: Some
promotion. We’re in the circuit right now. We’re doing various radio station
visits with our acoustic guitars, playing three or four songs to the radio
listeners, and then we’re starting the Nickelback tour June
19. That’ll go for a couple of months, then we want to go back to Europe and
play for the fans over there. After that we'll come back and do a full
headlining run in the states. So, we’re going to be fairly busy for the next
year and a half.